Jaywalking in Boston

As I posted earlier in the month, Boston pedestrians were featured in an article in the Boston Globe a couple of weekends ago. As a followup to that, the Globe asked me to participate in an online chat on the topic the week after the article came out. I did, and the result was a pretty interesting Q&A discussion between me and a variety of Globe readers. For the next few posts here, I'll be adapting some of the questions and answers from that session for us to read here.

First, a bit of introduction. What's the story with jaywalking, anyway?

Jaywalking is kind of a way of life around here. But there's more to it than people just disregarding laws and sometimes their own safety.

When you're in a car, you're pretty much limited to moving along a few limited paths -- streets. But when you're on foot, you have a lot more flexibility, and the way a city is built and designed can encourage you or discourage you from obeying laws that apply to you. And the infrastructure of the city can work well for cars, or for pedestrians, or both (and let's not forget bikes!). When a lot of people are breaking the law, that's a sign that the existing structures aren't working, not merely that people are profligate rule-breakers.

Why would I, as a pedestrian, wait to cross lawfully if it's going to take me 3-5 minutes to cross an intersection that I can see I can cross safely during a break in traffic? It doesn't make sense for me to do that, and it reflects an infrastructure that says in various subtle ways that my needs are not part of the equation, which encourages me to disregard them entirely.

On the other hand, in cities where pedestrians feel like they count, you'll see them waiting at a corner for the WALK light to come, even if there's no oncoming traffic. So, we know it can be done.

Pedestrians in Boston

The front page article on this week's Sunday Globe was Crossing to their own beat: Injuries up, but jaywalking abounds on Hub’s busy streets, which had a few quotes from yours truly. That article also has a link to a video about the traffic monitoring setup at City Hall.

I'm sorry that the article focuses so much on the question of fines and enforcement for jaywalking, when I think that, ultimately, that's just a piece in the puzzle of safe street management. There's talk of increasing fines for jaywalking in Massachusetts (currently a laughable $1), which may make sense as a part of a larger strategy for making better use of our streets for all users, but seems to me the wrong place to start. Fines don't improve the street experience for anyone, after all, and what we'd really like to see is a change in how we think about and use streets, rather than a reentrenchment of the same old, same old.

I want this cop's job

The video in this post makes me so happy. I've been watching it from time to time just to give myself a lift.

Next step: Get some Massachusetts municipalities to do the same. At up to $200 per crosswalk violation, it would more than pay for itself.

Hit by a bus

Yesterday, the daughter of a friend of mine was hit by a bus in Davis Square. She's okay, thankfully, but it makes me think about how vulnerable pedestrians are every day. Of course, this is one of the reasons that WalkBoston and other advocacy organizations are so important, even in areas like Davis Square that are reasonably pedestrian friendly.

I don't know the details of what happened beyond what's reported here in the Somerville Journal. And to some degree, I don't need to know the details, because all the issues are the same with pedestrians, vehicles, and crosswalks. And here's what they are:

Pedestrians, we have the right of way in crosswalks in Massachusetts. But, because we're walking around in our vulnerable skins, we should always remember that it doesn't matter whose right of way it was if we get hit -- the hospital visit is the same no matter what. Use care, don't assume cars see us or are prepared to stop for us if they do see us.

Drivers, I know that you're sometimes in a hurry, and driving is stressful, and frequently what you most want is to finish whatever it is that has you in your car so you can stop dealing with traffic and the frustrations that go with it. Still, it's your job to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, even if you had to stop five times already and are running late. But you really don't want to be the driver who hit a pedestrian, right? Right.

It's easy to be wrapped up in what we're doing, and in our agendas and the hurry and bustle of our days. Each of us needs to be responsible for our own safety, while also taking care of the people we're sharing our space with.